I think it best to clarify the meaning of certain words in advance of their use.
Don't you?
involving sympathy without action
I conclude that a songwriter is a musical storyteller and that every lyric is a story with at least one lesson. Of course, not every song has lyrics in which case the music is left to convey the feeling, if not the lesson, of the story. Substitute movement and setting for lyrics and you have a dance that can tell a story through gesture against background.
In the context of this presentation, music provides the background setting for the foreground lyrical details and typically serves as subtext for the feelings the author hopes the story will inspire.
Songs, like all stories (including those evoked by dance, paintings, sculptures, photography, etc), convey, to varying degrees of detail, both a journey and its lessons. Songwriting is the craft that uses music to both propel the journey and underscore the lessons.
To beat a dead metaphor, the music is the engine propelling the song and the lyrics are the direction it's going. If it's a bumpy ride or not is up to the performers. If it's a worthy destination or not is up to the lyricist.
The music is only a vehicle for delivering the lyrics so it hardly matters if it's not the latest model full of state of the art gadgetry. If it starts strong and keeps going at a steady pace without running out of gas then you're bound to make it to the end with everyone on board.
Only the audience can decide if the journey was worth paying for so do the best you can with what you've got with a sense purpose and you'll go somewhere. End of tortured metaphor.
A sure way to kill a song you're writing is to be the only one who can play it. This is not as certain a way as being the only one who hears it. That's an entirely different problem requiring unique solutions for us all.
